Welcome!

This is a blog about my ukulele misadventures. I thought it would be interesting to chronicle how a musical instrument has changed my life.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Kamaka survives riot - thanks to Ameritage case

Subtitle: "SF BART commute disrupted by protesters"

Last night was an interesting experience riding in public transportation in San Francisco. The Civic Center and 16th Street BART stations were closed due to demonstrators protesting the recent fatal shooting of a transient man by BART police.

Protesters boarded my train... with me and my Kamaka inside... and BART-PD and SFPD with riot gear in full effect. Geez...

My first question to the protesters is this: Why would you want to disrupt the public's commute? We, the commuters, should not be the victims of your irresponsible behavior. Direct your anger/frustration/bent-up energy to the BART officials, rather than the public. Your apparent forthright actions were utterly lost in the ill-considered decision to disrupt BART travel, which resulted in the loss of my sympathy and support.

My second questions to the protesters are: Why would you prevent a man carrying an ukulele case from leaving the train you are targetting? Do you have something against ukuleles? In the midst of all this craziness, I was shoved around in the train while the protesters were in full riot. I was fortunate that I brought my kamaka in an Ameritage hard case that day, otherwise it would have been damaged to some degree. The case got bruised and scratched a bit, but the ukulele was not touched. I was also stopped twice by SFPD and my uke case was searched. When they saw that all I had in there was *gasp* an ukulele, they just snickered and let me go. (What did you think was in there?!) I laughed with them, and promptly went on my way.

In the end, the people I blame were the protesters. Seriously. Next time, think about your actions, and act like civilized people.